I almost alwaysdownshifted in my brother Porsche when I owned it for a short time, and almost always downshifted in my Honda as well....in the short time I have owned my V, I have been downshifting. I was wondering what yall do?

I AM talking about depressing the clutch....raising the RPMS with a little gas... and letting the GEAR and ENGINE slow you down.....not the clutch.

I hope Im clear. Thanks.

DILLIGAF

10-21-05, 05:47 PM

Sounds like what I try not to do.I don't try to slow down the car much with downshifting,I use the brakes for that.I mainly match rpms and gear for speed i'm going.Brake pads cheap-motor expensive.To each his own,probably doesn't hurt a damn thing doing it your way.

AmesCTS-V

10-21-05, 05:58 PM

We have awesome brakes so I use them.

LV_V

10-21-05, 05:58 PM

I downshift to a lower gear by RPM matching, say to 2nd, before I hit a corner I want to take hard. It allows the car to slow down a bit but also gives you tremendous power going into and coming out of the corner being in the same gear.

Coming to a light, on the other hand, I usually stay in the gear I am already in and use the brakes, then when the RPMs drop to about 1200 or so I hit the clutch (thats one thing I love about this car: you don't even have to look at the tach to know where its at :thumbsup: ).

oceanhut

10-21-05, 05:58 PM

Sounds like what I try not to do.I don't try to slow down the car much with downshifting,I use the brakes for that.I mainly match rpms and gear for speed i'm going.Brake pads cheap-motor expensive.To each his own,probably doesn't hurt a damn thing doing it your way.

Im sorta in the same boat with you. I know our clutches are strong....but I use it as little as possible. When approaching a red light, I'll stay in the gear I am in, and then pop it in neutral and hit the brakes at the last moment.

I usually only downshift when I need to accelerate more quickly.

Luna.

10-21-05, 05:58 PM

I generally try to avoid downshifting in such a manner.

heavymetals

10-21-05, 06:50 PM

Im sorta in the same boat with you. I know our clutches are strong....but I use it as little as possible. When approaching a red light, I'll stay in the gear I am in, and then pop it in neutral and hit the brakes at the last moment.

I usually only downshift when I need to accelerate more quickly.

Bout the same here!

Koooop

10-21-05, 07:19 PM

Brakes are cheaper than a clutch, but I like the sound of RPM matching a downshift to decelerate. I gotta V8 and I like to hear it!

BadCad

10-21-05, 07:21 PM

I always downshift so as to take street corners in 2nd gear, but I'll downshift to get there from 4th to 3rd if needed. Around town on surface streets I usually shift 1-2-4 and keep it there and use brakes to stop at lights; downshifting is usually not done conscientiously from high rpm's.

DrivingAmericanNow

10-21-05, 07:41 PM

I never use the downshift as a brake, but when I'm decellerating, I always downshift with a jab of the throttle to match RPMs in the lower gear. With the right timing, it's the smoothest way to shift, it keeps me solidly in the power range, and it sounds GREAT to anyone nearby.

Heck, I use the same downshift approach whenever I downshift.... especially on that 4th-to-3rd gearchange we all use to humiliate Mustangs on the highway. :tease:

Vrocks

10-21-05, 09:02 PM

I match the revs when I downshift. I always use the engine to help slow the car down.

04CTSVFLA

10-21-05, 09:37 PM

ok match revs.....thats what I do, but I do it through all the gears, or skip one (ie 4-2).

i already got squeak from my brakes so.....its loud everytime I slowdown
Mine started to squeak around 20K miles and I thought the pads were shot. I was told they were fine and that they took some glaze off the rotors. The squeak is back after a couple thousand miles, I guess the pad material is different towards the middle / end of its life.

LV_V

10-21-05, 10:43 PM

I get the squeak from the brakes every now and then, especially if I've been driving over gravel or around lots of dust. After washing the V and getting the rotors and calipers clean it goes away completely.

Dennisscars

10-21-05, 11:24 PM

I "shitty" downshift and proud of it...(never heard it called that)

In all my years of driving a standard, I'd get twice the clutch life and twice the brake life of anybody in my fleet.

ace996

10-22-05, 12:19 AM

OK...I'll make it real simple...
Brakes are for slowing down...the engine is for speeding up. You should NEVER use the engine to slow your car down from speed, unless you have lost brake function and are trying to save your/someone's life. Now I'm not saying don't downshift, just don't downshift to slow the car. And please,please don't do that while in a turn...

I can get into the real mechanics if that's not enough, but I'd rather not.

Dennisscars

10-22-05, 12:22 AM

high speed downshifting in turn, very bad...

V-Love

10-22-05, 01:46 AM

[quote=ace996] And please,please don't do that while in a turn...

quote]
YOU CAN DIE THIS WAY!

V-Love

10-22-05, 01:48 AM

high speed downshifting in turn, very bad...
I have picture proof of that! I just cant post it.

Vrocks

10-22-05, 02:14 AM

high speed downshifting in turn, very bad...
I did that when I was first learning to drive the V (The V is the first car I've owned with a manual transmission) :lildevil: . I've done a lot of stupid things but this was pretty good:

I was going down hill and I maxed out third gear. I'm on the brakes for a left hand turn and I shift into 2nd gear without rev matching. I didn't just drop the clutch but because of the braking and downshifting the rear end locked up. I was probably going around 50mph when this happened, fortunately the rear end only locked up for a second or two.

Two V's in my area crashed from downshiting mistakes.

Seattle CTS-V

10-22-05, 04:16 AM

high speed downshifting in turn, very bad...

I agree. When I took the driving school this summer the coach was trying to show me how to heel-toe (which is very hard in our cars). So much was going on at the same time (braking, blipping, shifting, turning and peeling my face off the window) that I let the clutch out too fast w/o enough RPMs and the engine basically acted like a rear-only brake. The back end slid out and I was lucky to catch it and bring it back.

Like everyone says: Brakes for stopping, Engine for going!

ntechnic

10-22-05, 04:54 AM

The brakes are the strongest "engine" in your car--they convert far more energy per unit of time than the motor can, SWAG is something like 400% more.

Engine braking is fairly effective on ultra high compression diesel engines, but not on our gas powered ones.

Brake hard, rev match on the downshift (double clutch with a quick throttle blip for the most fun and best sound--especially if you have a StealthV tune which yields better engine response).

V-Love

10-26-05, 01:32 AM

Like everyone says: Brakes for stopping, Engine for going![/quote]
TRUE.....TRUE...

Novi

10-26-05, 01:57 AM

On freeways and highways I usually downshift after rpm matching in order to keep my rpms up so I can accelerate faster if the situation arises. When I first got the car I used the brakes more but found that I didn't always downshift at the same time I hit the brakes, causing me to be in the wrong gear if I needed to move fast. On the streets I use the brakes more. :thumbsup:

I use compression breaking when I feel like making a spirited turn...or whenever I feel like it when coming to a stop light. It's just fun to do.
Our clutches aren't as strong as I thought...mine is slipping pretty badly at 16k miles! I have it setup to get replaced under warranty.

evil 8

10-26-05, 02:16 PM

I agree. When I took the driving school this summer the coach was trying to show me how to heel-toe (which is very hard in our cars). So much was going on at the same time (braking, blipping, shifting, turning and peeling my face off the window) that I let the clutch out too fast w/o enough RPMs and the engine basically acted like a rear-only brake. The back end slid out and I was lucky to catch it and bring it back.

Like everyone says: Brakes for stopping, Engine for going!

Try this for heel and toeing if your feet are big enough: Right foot straight up and down, big toe on the brake pedal, pinky toe on the gas. Pivot knee to the right for gas stabs. This is how I heel and toe everything now. I was never comfortable with toes on the brake and heel on the gas,or vice versa. This way takes a little practice to avoid porpoising during throttle stabs. I've driven this way with the vettes,evo , V, and is the only way my feet would work on the Noble M400.

trekster

10-26-05, 02:27 PM

Try this for heel and toeing if your feet are big enough: Right foot straight up and down, big toe on the brake pedal, pinky toe on the gas. Pivot knee to the right for gas stabs. This is how I heel and toe everything now. I was never comfortable with toes on the brake and heel on the gas,or vice versa. This way takes a little practice to avoid porpoising during throttle stabs. I've driven this way with the vettes,evo , V, and is the only way my feet would work on the Noble M400. I can't heel and toe because of my size 14 feet! I just use the breaks too slow down. I downshift everynow and then.